In The Buzz Cut, we bring you a round-up of all the weird, controversial, and wonderful stories we’ve been reading all week.
The #FreeBritney movement is trending again, thanks to Britney Spears fans who allege the pop star has been sending cryptic signals through her social media. The movement seeks to give back Spears control over her life, which was taken away from her in 2007 after a series of highly-publicized breakdowns landed her in a psychiatric facility, leading to a divorce and loss of custody of her kids.
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Current and former employees of The Ellen Degeneres Show have revealed the toxicity of the daytime talk show’s work environment, alleging widespread racism and intimidation. “That ‘be kind’ bullshit only happens when the cameras are on. It’s all for show,” BuzzFeed News reports.
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More than 75% of the richest people of the world have seen their fortunes increase vastly amid the coronavirus pandemic, even as severe economic downturns deeply affect the poor. Here’s how some people have capitalized on the pandemic.
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The Bold Type star Aisha Dee (who plays Kate Edison on the progressive feminist show) recently called out a severe lack of diversity on set, from writers to hairdressers. “The truth is, these issues are not exclusive to The Bold Type. The entertainment industry has operated this way since its inception,” she revealed in a viral Instagram post.
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This week, actress Naya Rivera died at the age of 33, after an accidental drowning that was confirmed after a six-day search and rescue effort in the U.S. Fans from all around the world have been mourning the actress, especially reminiscing about her role as Santana Lopez in hit television series Glee. Here’s how Rivera’s portrayal of a lesbian woman of color changed the game for young queer youth of the time.
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How does a Qatari sheikh do college? A unbelievable story about the power of wealth and royalty shows how a prince from Qatar built an entire entourage of people to get him through his degree course at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, just as he jetsetted around the world, barely attending classes.
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The recent #BlackLivesMatter protests have shed an ugly light on the deep prejudice and inequality entrenched in American institutions against Black people. One such account throws the problem into starker focus — a 15-year-old Black girl on probation was sent to juvenile prison for not finishing her homework.
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How does one navigate long-distance, long-term, friendships? As we, as a society, start to value the platonic intimacies of friendships up there with romantic or sexual intimacies, the tools we use to keep those connections intact will also have to adapt. One example arrives in the form of a memoir by media personalities Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, best friends who took to couples counseling to work on their friendship.
